OF POWER AND OF PAIN | 𝐀𝐩𝗼𝐥𝐥𝗼

V

POV:

Apollo.
God of the sun.

Apollo sat at the stairs of a building, throwing stones across the path. A certain goddess of the stars walked by. Delia had her hair flowing in the wind, she had a white blouse on and jeans and Apollo swore she had stars in her eyes.
    "Delia!" He ran up to her and she turned to face him.
She smiled "Hey!"
    "How are you?" The sun god asked.
    "Im good, how are you?"
"Good, good. Want to go for a walk."
Delia looked at her home— where she was originally gonna go— and frowned. "well, actually...." She looked at Apollo, so excited to be hanging out with her. "Sure?"
Apollo lunged forward and hugged Delia tight, the space around them turned bright and yellow. After a bit, the colors faded and they were in a forest.
"That wasn't exactly a walk." Delia chuckled.
"Right, but look!" He pointed at the sun.
"Extra bright today." He nodded his head as if he was proud of himself.
"Is that all you wanted to show me?"
Apollo snapped out of his trance and looked at Delia. "uhh"
He hadn't actually planned anything, he thought they could just look at the sun and be proud of Apollo.
He looked around the forest and spotted an owl. "thats a cool...owl, right?"
"I guess, sure." Delia was close to laughing but held it in for Apollo sake.
"To be honest, I don't really know what I was gonna show you. I just wanted to see you..." He admitted, looking at the floor. Delia smiled and held his chin up, causing Apollo to forget about the bright sun.
"Thats alright." She smiled. "A walk?"
Delia held her arm out and waited for Apollo.
"uhh..." he had tried to say 'yes please' but it came out like "hdes hees"

They walked around the forest and Apollo talked all about the sun and music and poetry, he even showed Delia one of his terrible haikus.
Apollo was now singing a song he made up in the shower while Delia laughed.
    "How was it?" He asked, after finishing the last note.
"Absolutely wonderful" Delia giggled.
Apollo's smile grew and he awed "your too kind"
    "Can you sing?" he asked as he stopped walking.
    "No...I'm not great at singing." Delia giggled uncomfortably.
He smiled. "I'm sure you sound great!"
Delia rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly, anxiety laced her face like the stitches of a beautifully knitted sweater.
Apollo frowned but continued the walk. Just as expected, Apollo talked for majority of the walk. Delia listened with a genuine smile.
"Oh! and your art- temple- thing! Your sculpture's are so cool" he stretched out the "so" to get the point across. "are you planning on making any more statues? I know you have Persephone and Artemis...and those two kids- oh! by the way, who are those kids?" He ranted.
"Oh...They're my children, twins. Daniel and Aris Barrett." Delia smiled. Apollo frowned.
    "Thats...nice. So, who are the other humans?" He continued.
Delia hummed, trying to remember all of the statues she's built. "Well, theres one of Athena's children. Skylar Bleu, I gave her a quest and the only thing she asked in return was to be a statue in my temple." Delia then went on to explain each and every human and minor god in her temple. Apollo smiled as he listened.
    "you're a lot kinder than most gods." Apollo pointed out.
    "hm?" Delia hummed in confusion.
    "Well...some gods, that i will not be naming for my sake— would not dare to put demigods in a temple. Or any other people than themselves. And how you treat your children... do you talk to them often?"
    "Well, i guess. I send them letters, do you not?"
Apollo suddenly felt guilty. "no" he said with much regret following after.
"I have paper." Delia said after a short silence.
she flicked her hand and a piece of paper along with a pen appeared.
Apollo hesitantly started writing.

dear, children.

Hi. I am Apollo, your super cool pops. How are all of you? Cool.

"what do i write?"
"what do you want your kids to know?"
no help whatsoever

Hi. I am Apollo, your super cool pops. How are all of you? Cool. Why did the sun cross the earth? To get to the other side of the earth! ahaha! Anyways, Zeus has been boring blah blah blah Artemis keeps telling me to not fall in love with her hunters blah blah blah- theres this really hot goddess, daughter of Persephone and Hades. Her name is Delia, such a cool name. Anyways, Dionysus has been hosting party's every. single. day. blah blah blah...

he wrote whatever came to his mind.
"can I see it?" Delia asked
"no" Apollo said, a smug smile covered his face.
...